Private Joseph Shaheen, Bell Island Veteran of the Great War

Lebanese immigrants made up a notable proportion of new business operators on Bell Island during the first half of the 1900s. The family names that became familiar to Bell Islanders included Ahee, Andrews, Basha, Boulos, Carbage, Ellis, Gosine, Herro, Nikosey, Sapp, Shaheen, Simon and Tuma. Many members of these families made contributions to Newfoundland history.

One interesting and tragic example is Private Joseph Shaheen of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment.

Private Joseph Sheen (1891-1959).

Joseph was born in 1891, to Jacob and Annie Shaheen in the Maronite Christian village of Lehfed, Byblos District, Lebanon, about 55 kilometres north of Beirut. He married Angeline Joseph Gairus in 1908 in Lehfed and they had two sons, born in 1908 and 1910. He was a butcher by occupation.

David Shaheen’s 1913 business stationery.

David Shaheen (seated) and Joseph Shaheen. Circa 1911.

At some point between 1910-1911, Joseph and his brother David decided to temporarily leave their young families behind in Lebanon and immigrate to Bell Island, where their sister had settled. By 1913, Joseph was working as a shopkeeper, while David was working as a salesman.

War broke out, and Joseph enlisted in the Royal Newfoundland Regiment on December 10, 1914. He had registration number 712. Joseph saw active service as an infantry soldier over a period of four years. He served for three months in Gallipoli, five in France, and three in Egypt. He sustained serious shrapnel wounds and nerve damage injuries to his left leg on 19 June 1916 at Beaumont-Hamel, France. This led to the amputation of that leg. He was discharged, as a Private, on January 10, 1919.

World War I greatly impacted the lives of Lebanon’s inhabitants. Thousands of Lebanese died in the Great Famine of Mount Lebanon. In November of 1919, Joseph learned that his wife and two children, his parents, his brother Jacob, and his brother David’s three children had all died during the war.

Joseph left Newfoundland in the early 1920s. He remarried in Ottawa, Ontario, in 1925, and he died on November 19, 1959. He and his second wife, Alice, had one child named Albert Shaheen.